


This Means War

by VeriLee



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Competition, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, M for future chapters, Prank Wars, Unresolved Sexual Tension, antagonists to lovers, until we resolve it wink wink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-01-15 15:25:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21255545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeriLee/pseuds/VeriLee
Summary: It started with a harmless prank (or not so harmless, depending on who you ask) and  the battlelines were drawn:Ben ruined Rey's perfectly planned Halloween dance in high school and she never forgave him. So when they end up working together years later, their old rivalry is resurrected as they attempt to outwit and one-up each other, and never,everadmit they want to jump each other's bones.Wait, what?!---HIATUS Until November 2020.





	1. Halloween - Senior Year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LoveofEscapism](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveofEscapism/gifts).

> Another prompt for LoveofEscapism! Thank you for all you do, and I hope you have fun reading!
> 
> "Ben and Rey are enemies and every Halloween they try to one up each other...cue the sexual tension, pranks and all out war...with HEA and smut if I am lucky ;)"
> 
> With a little twist! Ben and Rey's competitive, pranking nature starts with Halloween but doesn't end there and we're going to see them at each other's throats as they try to outdo each other throughout other holidays, leading right up to New Years. Will they finally give up the fight and ring it in with a kiss (or more)?
> 
> EDIT July 2020:
> 
> This is now on hiatus until fall 2020. I feel so bad that I fell so far behind, but I'd like to resume this story as it was originally planned: to have chapter updates that coincide with seasonal events, ending at New Year's. So in November, I will pick up post-Halloween and go from there!

* * *

It began during Rey Niima's senior year of high school.

It hadn't been easy, moving to a new town (again), with a new guardian (again). Especially for her final year of secondary school, when everyone else in the small town had been in the same cliques, had the same best friends since their diaper days.

But despite her nerves, Rey had found a place after all: She made fast friends with Finn Storm, a boy who had been new himself only a year before, and knew how hard it could be. From there, she found a place in his friend group (even if she sometimes wondered if the others liked the novelty of her accent more than _ her _) and found herself on the social events committee at school.

She was proud of herself for taking charge when others on the committee couldn't agree on a theme for the Halloween dance, and bringing her idea to fruition. It had even been thrifty, coming in well under budget, since she had repurposed a lot of materials from the previous spring's production of Midsummer Night's Dream.

The theme was 'Into The Woods,' but with extra emphasis on the darker aspects of the fairytales. The old castle wall props and fake trees were given a once-over with darker paint, and then decorated with lacy cobwebs, warped mirrors and other unsettling trinkets. Rey's personal favorite were the "poisoned" apples (read: shriveled from being soaked in vinegar) that hung alongside flickering lights in the trees. The end result was a nightmarish wonderland, and Rey couldn't be more pleased.

Until _ someone _ ruined everything.

It went well at first. The DJ was weaving Top 40 hits and classic dance numbers in between the "Monster Mash" and "Werewolves of London" tracks to keep from being too kitschy, teenagers were dancing and chatting, and Rey made sure the snack and punch table was well stocked. Sure, a few freshmen had ransacked the bowl of peeled-grape-eyeballs for an impromptu projectile battle, but Rey scared them off quickly enough.

But right in the middle of "Backstreet's Back" (which wasn't even really a Halloween song without the music video, but whatever), Rey's perfectly planned night came to an end when the fire sprinklers suddenly came to life, raining down torrents of water on a gymnasium full of surprised and screaming students and turning the paper maché and cardboard props to mush.

The crowds ran streaming for the exits, tripping over each other and splashing through puddles. Rey followed suit, though she knew perfectly well the volunteer Fire Department would find nothing when they stormed the gym in search of a flame to have set off the response system.

"This is your fault." She stomped across the crowded parking lot, where kids and teachers milled about in the aftermath of the chaos.

"Mine?" Ben Solo, the principal's nephew and known troublemaker was reclining against his sleek black Tie Whisper wearing an equally sleek smirk on his face as Rey approached him. Even his costume - Darth Vader, though he'd dispensed with the helmet sometime earlier - was all black.

"Don't play dumb, Ben. I saw you." Rey rubbed at her goosepimpled arms as she spoke. Her costume - a zombified Little Red Riding Hood - would have been warm enough for the late October breeze if she weren't soaking wet. "Sitting up at the top of the bleachers. _ Lurking." _

"So you were watching me?" He stood up then, the maneuver bringing him suddenly far too close to Rey.

"I wasn't _ watching _you," Rey protested. She could feel her cheeks warm and inwardly thanked her lucky stars for the zombie face paint that masked her blush.

She had been watching him; her distraction was what had allowed for the grape eyeball instance to occur, in fact. Not that she would admit it - Ben Solo was good looking, but a certified jackass, and that was her opinion _ before _ he had ruined her hard work.

"It's dark up there when the overhead lights are out. I doubt you'd notice anyone there if you weren't looking for someone." Ben took an infinitesimal step closer and stared her down.

Rey shivered, _ only _because of her cold, wet clothing and not for any other reason at all, thank you. "Bullshit. I just happened to glance up while you were playing with your stupid lighter. It was the flame that caught my eye."

Ben scoffed. "Don't lie to yourself." He seemed to notice her shiver then and his cocky bravado slipped away for a moment. "You're cold; do you want to borrow my cape?"

It was Rey's turn to scoff then. "You don't care. If you did, maybe you shouldn't have been waving your lighter under fire sensors!"

"It's not a big deal, Rey," Ben defended, rolling his stupid, pretty brown eyes. "It's Halloween. Ever hear of the 'trick' part of 'trick or treat'?"

"It wasn't funny. And you're an ass." Rey tilted her chin up and fixed an angry glare on him.

"Yes, I am," Ben spit out in reply.

Rey blinked at that - she had expected more fighting back, not that. She took a step back without saying anything and finally turned on her heel with a huff and stomped away again. 

* * *

It should have been the end. Because although their paths crossed a few more times that year, they went their separate ways after graduation.

Ben went to a fancy university out of state, because that was what old money could buy, while Rey worked her way through community college. Ben got a some snooty job in Coruscant City and Rey began working for a tech company right in town. He didn't visit his family much, and those infrequent trips didn't mean anything to Rey, anyway.

So no, Rey did not expect to have to put up with Ben's obnoxious ass ever again.

Until he walked into her workplace one unassuming afternoon, ready to make her life hell. And despite his fancy suits and titles, it seemed that he hadn't given up his pranking and competitive ways.

But Rey was older and wiser than that frustrated high schooler she once was. And she was ready to fight back. 


	2. Halloween - Present Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wherein Rey and Ben are now working at the same company, though they haven't learned how to communicate with each other any better yet. :)
> 
> It's been about six years since the prologue chapter.
> 
> And, yes, I changed the title from "Waterloo" to "This Means War." Sorry for any confusion!

* * *

It was Friday night and since Halloween would be falling on the coming Monday this year, the bar where Rey and Finn were enjoying their typical end-of-the-week get together was especially busy. For every table of buttoned up office workers unwinding there was a cluster of twenty-somethings in costume, taking advantage of the discount on zombie shots and Bloody Marys.

Rey was not dressed up, but having come straight from work, she had hauled along her small jack-o-lantern from the pumpkin carving contest at her office. It now held court in the center of their table, surrounded by empty glasses, a silent, comedically grinning observer to their - well, mostly Rey’s - venting. 

“I still can’t believe he won.” Rey glowered at her pumpkin, as though it was the gourd’s fault she had lost out to _ him. _

“Well, was it a better pumpkin?” Finn asked innocently, earning a quick, sharp glare from Rey.

Okay, maybe it had been a pretty good pumpkin, with a quote from “The Raven” carved in finer calligraphy than most people could manage with a pen and ink, and a detailed, close-up Raven, a blend of carving and scraping techniques. Rey’s jack-o-lantern aso used both carving and scraping to depict a grinning skull crowned with flowers - on a less common white pumpkin no less.

But it was less about the craftsmanship and more about the artist behind it. What right did Ben Solo have to go all out for what was supposed to be a lowkey, casual carving contest, an activity designed mostly around encouraging workplace camaraderie, when he’d been giving Rey such a hard time about Halloween all week?

Yes, _ that, _ Ben Solo. The one she thought she would only have to endure in passing on his infrequent visits to his family that still lived in town. The one who had showed up at D’Qar Digital Solutions in August as their new accountant.

He had been so quiet around her, that at first Rey assumed he didn't recognize her from their high school days or their handful of brief encounters since. But he had addressed her by name at the company end-of-summer potluck when telling her that her watergate salad was a desert not a side dish, and again when disagreeing with her suggestion for instituting casual Fridays and then Rey knew. Ben recognized her perfectly - he was just still the same stuck-up nerf herder he'd been as a teenager.

“It was nepotism, is what it was,” Rey said assuredly. Her boss, Amilyn Holdo was good friends with Ben’s mother. It had secured him a job when he left First Order Financial in Coruscant in spectacular fashion (exposing several of his higher-ups, including the CEO, of securities fraud) and come back to Chandrila like a prodigal son, Rey was _ sure _ of it. And it won him the pumpkin carving contest.

“You think they fixed a silly Halloween competition over…” Finn took a swig of his Guinness and pretended to think hard, “What was the prize again?”

“A voucher for dinner for two at Mama Maz’s Diner,” Rey mumbled. It did sound silly to say out loud. “With pie,” she added with a flourish.

“Old Maz’s pie. That does change the stakes, doesn’t it?” Finn grinned and Rey stuck her tongue out in turn.

“Well you come up with a better reason,” she said with a huff. “He’s been an insufferable ass about Halloween all week, giving me shit about my decorations and pranks, as though he’s _ above _it all, above the rest of us.”

Rey leaned hard into any holiday celebration. Any excuse to shake things up and take a break from the monotony of everyday life was a good thing in her book, after a childhood devoid of excitement and fun. And Halloween was no exception. She had changed the hold music on their phone lines to a Halloween party mix, had brought in plastic pumpkins full of candy to share with her coworkers, and had planned a series of pranks and scares throughout the week to liven things up. Nothing too outlandish, but just for fun: adding food color to the coffee maker in the breakroom to give the coffee a blood red tinge, plastic eyeballs in the ice trays, fake cobwebs across doorways - that sort of thing.

But where her jokes had earned gasps or laughs from others, Ben had remained unamused and unaffected, aside from the weary rolling of his eyes.

“A severed head in the fridge, Rey? Really?” had been his only response when fetching his leftover Pad Thai from the refrigerator earlier that day, and Rey had heard the unspoken admonishment underneath his words: ‘grow up.’

“He thinks Halloween is stupid, childish,” she continued. “But does he have to tease me or give me a hard time for having a little fun? Besides, I’m pretty sure he’s the one that takes all the chocolate covered candy corn and doesn’t leave any for the rest of us.” Okay, maybe she hadn’t ever seen him eat _ any _ candy corn, but she wanted to pin one more crime on him.

Finn chuckled from across the table. “Maybe he just never learned how to move past pulling on your pigtails.” When Rey frowned in confusion, he added, “Metaphorically, that is.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying. That’s nonsense, Finn,” Rey sputtered.

“It isn’t. He had a crush on you in high school and he has a crush on you now.”

Ben Solo, with his high dollar suits and a string of glamorous girlfriends to match (he’d brought a few of them home on occasion over the past several years, when he’d returned during college semester breaks or holidays) did _ not _ have a crush on messy, exuberant Rey, then _ or _ now. Finn had clearly had too much to drink.

Rey shook her head emphatically. “You are way off base. He’s just a stick in the mud that needs to loosen up.”

“I won’t argue with that.” Finn didn’t work at D’Qar, but he had heard enough of Rey’s stories, and had crossed paths with him a few times since Ben had returned to town - Chandrila wasn’t exactly a bustling metropolis. “But even though he is uptight, that doesn’t change the fact that-”

“Hush, you,” Rey leaned across the table to clap a hand clumsily over Finn’s mouth. “I have a plan.”

* * *

“What the fuck?!”

There was no mistaking Ben Solo’s voice ringing loud and clear through the halls Monday morning, and everyone already in the office came running to see the cause of the shouting. It was a good thing no early client meetings were scheduled that day.

Rey, of course, was one of them. She’d been there since seven sharp just to be sure she wouldn’t miss his arrival.

Hungover, but determined, Rey had spent her Saturday shopping, driving to two other towns to clear out the stash at every Party City and Dollar Tree, then had to go into the D’Qar office late Sunday night, but it was worth it.

Cup of coffee in hand, Rey glanced at her coworkers clamoring towards the corner of the office where the HR and accounting departments were stationed, while Ben Solo, in turn, watched her.

“This was your doing.”

Rey spun around again to smirk at Ben when he spoke. If she didn’t know better she almost would have sworn that she saw a glimmer of awe warring with the irritation she saw flickering in his golden-brown eyes.

“You think I had something to do with this?” she asked with faux innocence.

_ “This” _ was the heap of rubber rats currently streaming out of the door to his cubicle and into the hallway. It had been quite lucky for Rey that Ben worked in a cubicle _ with _ a door, but _ not _ an office with floor to ceiling walls. Made it rather easy to stand on an overturned wastebasket and dump bags full of the rubber rodents over the wall.

Picking up a rat and waving it in front of her face, Ben stepped closer. “Funny how you were the first to come point and laugh, isn’t it? Especially considering that your desk is on the other side of the office.”

“Is it?” Rey asked, ignoring the snickers she heard behind her. She had to tilt her face up to meet his eyes when he was this close to her and she cursed herself inwardly for noticing the pleasant, not overwhelming scent of his aftershave even now.

“Not to mention all your little “jokes” last week.” He lifted his hands to make air-quotes as he spoke, though any imposing attitude he was attempting to exude was negated by the squeak of the toy rat being squeezed in one large fist.

Rey shrugged, trying to pretend she wasn’t affected by his nearness. By all accounts she _ shouldn’t _ be. “You weren’t too impressed by any of those. I guess _ someone _ decided to up the ante for you.”

“This is going to take an hour to clean up, before I can even start to work, you know.” He shook the rat again and Rey stifled a laugh.

“Haven’t you ever heard of the _ ‘trick’ _ part of ‘trick or treat’ Ben?” She asked, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. The petty phrase had lingered far too long in her memory, considering how long ago he had spoken the words to her. She watched as confusion over her words turned to realization in his eyes.

“This is payback? For something that happened when we were _ kids?” _ Ben stamered. “You can’t be serious!”

“We’re right by Human Resources, if you want to file a complaint,” Rey said blithely. It was a bluff; she really _ could _ be in trouble if he wanted to pursue it. She rested her hands on her hips, adopting what she hoped was a casual, carefree air but inside her ballet flats, she crossed her toes for good luck.

Impossibly, Ben took another step closer, invading her personal space. He grabbed one of Rey’s wrists and before she could yank it away or ask what he was thinking, shoved the rubber rat into her hand. “I think we can settle this without them.”

And he spun around, kicking rats out of the way as he forced his way into his cubicle, giving up on trying to shut the door after a moment. Hidden by the tacky, taupe walls, Rey and everyone around her heard him sigh heavily, no doubt at the hundreds of toys occupying every surface and carpeting the floor.

A strange rush of elation and giddiness at getting under Ben’s skin flowed through Rey, now that she had space to breathe again and she let out a hysterical giggle as she began to turn away from his office.

Kaydel, the receptionist, was grinning as she sidled up to Rey and threaded an arm through her own. Rey had nearly forgotten their audience, who had watched their showdown in near silence and now chuckled amongst themselves as they snagged up a few of the forlorn rats now scattered in the hall before heading back to their own tasks.

“That was something!” Kaydel said, her voice carrying a note of admiration.

“Right?” Rey replied as they walked. “Mister aloof and unaffected is human and can be rattled after all.”

Kydel glanced up at Rey for a moment and then shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. That standoff was _ intense. _ He looked like he wanted to devour you.”

Rey stopped short and stared at Kaydel as though she’d grown a second head. “Yeah, like a vulture, maybe. He was pissed.”

“Maybe a little, but he was also impressed. No one else would dare to toy with him like you do.” They resumed walking again and reached Kaydel’s desk. She gave Rey another pointed look as she dropped into her chair and reached over to switch the phones on for the day. “If the rest of us hadn’t been around, he might have even tried to kiss you.”

“You are wrong,” Rey said, shaking her head more vigorously than a bobblehead. First Finn, now Kay. They’d lost it. What was in the water? “You are so, _ so _ wrong.”

The rat still in her hand gave one tiny whimper of a squeak as she balled her fists and strode towards her own desk. They were wrong.

They _ were. _

* * *

Three days later, Halloween was in the rearview mirror, but the D’Qar Solutions offices were still populated by rubber rats. After being shoveled out of Ben’s office, the squeaky rodents had found homes lined up on desks, hidden in the breakroom fridge for a laugh, and Kaydel had even made a scarf out of a scrap of felt for the one she had perched atop her computer. A boxful had also been donated to the dental office two floors below in the same building, although the dental assistant that had accepted the box seemed perplexed and apprehensive about adding the red-eyed creatures to the selection of prizes they allowed children to pick from at the end of their appointments.

Ben had been...surprisingly calm in the days that followed. Rey had expected retaliation after the display Monday morning, but he seemed to have brushed it off. Maybe she _ was _ being immature and he really had grown up. Belatedly, she actually felt a little guilty for the rats.

She had barely interacted with him since then - after all he was in accounting, while Rey’s role was the actual hands-on building of websites for other small businesses. (Luckily, she hardly ever had to deal face-to-face with customers either - customers who needed convincing every other day as to why D’Qar offered them something more than free point and click, diy website creation programs. People like Poe Dameron in customer service and sales, who could charm a fence post, were better suited for that.) And so Rey spent the next couple days metaphorically elbows deep in code, building and tweaking websites within the safe confines of her cubicle. She would awkwardly sidestep around Solo with a miniscule nod of greeting if they crossed paths in the breakroom, but otherwise, everything was business as usual.

Until Thursday night when both she and he ended up leaving work at the same time, about half an hour after the close of business. Rey had been madly trying to incorporate a new set of requests a customer had made at the last minute; she had no clue why Ben stayed late. He seemed ansty as they walked toward the elevator in stilted near silence, checking his phone, then pocketing it again every ten seconds. He clearly had something much better to be doing.

“You know funny thing about phones, you’ll get a notification when they text you back.” Watching his fidgetiness was making _ her _restless.

“Huh?” Ben looked up as though just realizing Rey was waiting alongside him, despite the fact that he’d held the door for her when they left the office.

“Whoever you’re so eager to hear from.” Rey nodded in the direction of the device, which looked comically small in Ben’s hand. “Staring at your phone isn’t going to make a message appear.”

“I’m not waiting for… I was just checking on…” Ben trailed off without any further explanation and turned back towards the shiny metal door of the elevator, waiting for the lift to arrive.

“Okay,” Rey muttered under her breath. _ So much for polite small talk. _ She would definitely tell Finn that Ben couldn’t be bothered to say a complete sentence to he if he brought up his hairbrained theory of the tall, sullen man harboring a crush again.

She stared up at the light tracking the progress of the elevator and willed it to move faster. They were only on the fourth floor of a five story building, but it was an old building and the elevator had a tendency to move as though the cables were being pulled through cold molasses. Rey might have opted to take the stairs instead, rather than endure this awkwardness but jogging off in the opposite direction at this point would only make this whole interaction even more uncomfortable. She’d be in her car, zipping away soon enough, anyway.

Finally the doors opened with a ‘ding’ that seemed to echo through the now empty hall and Rey shuffled in, followed by Ben.

“Garage level?” he asked distractedly, pressing the basement button, and glancing at his phone once more.

“Yep,” Rey confirmed, and the doors closed, their meandering descent beginning. Her relief at moving was short lived however.

Somewhere between the third and second floor, the elevator gave a sharp whine as it jolted and jerked. The lights flickered off, flooding them in darkness and Rey, who didn’t realize she had any height or elevator related fears until this very second, screamed and reflexively reached out and clung to the closest (only) person near her for dear life.

It took one long beat for Rey to realize that they were, in fact, not plummeting to their deaths down the elevator shaft, but that the car was stopped firmly in place. She was trapped, but perfectly safe. She opened her eyes, which she had screwed tightly closed when she shrieked, and noticed the emergency light had kicked on, casting an eerie glow across the small space.

Rey took a deep breath to steady her racing heart rate and a second, more mortifying realization overtook her. In her panic, she had plastered herself to one Ben Solo (aka her sworn enemy), her hands twisting and clutching the lapels of his jacket as though he were a life preserver and she were floundering at sea.

Even worse, he’d reacted to her throwing herself (literally) at him by automatically raising his own arms to catch her, and perhaps as frozen in shock as she was, he hadn’t let go.

And even worse than _ that, _ Rey found that she really, _ really _ liked the heat and weight of his hands where they’d landed on her waist, the firm expanse of his chest under her own fidgeting hands, even the way his dark eyes glinted in the dim red glow of the emergency light. She met his eyes and swallowed heavily, her heartbeat racing for altogether different reasons now.

Ben’s Adam apple bobbed as he opened his mouth to speak but only a solitary syllable came out. “Rey.”

_ Shit. _

“Sorry!” she blurted, jumping back as though she’ been burned. She smoothed the rumpled fabric of Ben’s shirt before taking yet another step back, putting much needed space between them. “I just panicked!” she added with a manic laugh.

Ben cleared his throat and nodded a few times, though she hadn’t asked any questions. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I guess...I guess now we wait...Or is there an emergency call button?” She squinted in the low light at the panel of buttons.

“We should be moving again any second.” Ben pulled out his phone again and frowned at it before tapping at the screen. “I don’t know why he hasn’t started it back up already.”

“Excuse me?” Rey narrowed her eyes as suspicion overpowered her embarrassment. She didn’t have all the pieces but she had enough to start to see that Ben was up to something. _ “Who _ hasn’t _ what, _ now?”

Ben made a garbled sound somewhere in between a stammer and a nervous chuckle as he dragged one hand through his shaggy, dark locks. “Well, uh, it wasn’t a malfunction. I was trying to get back at you.”

“You did this on purpose? For _ revenge?” _Rey demanded, bristling. “How?”

“For the rats, yeah. I got a buddy in security to use the emergency override from downstairs,” he explained with a sheepish grin. “It was just supposed to be a little scare.”

The lights flickered back to life, leaving Rey squinting against the sudden brightness as the elevator lurched into motion once again. But she was too annoyed to focus much on her relief.

She had thought, for just a moment, that something might have changed between them, when he’d held her close for just a moment too long and whispered her name.

But any softness in Ben’s eyes had just been a trick of the dim light. It had all been part of a practical joke. Rey huffed and told herself that her feelings weren’t hurt _ at all, _ and that tiny pang she felt was just residual panic that hadn’t faded away quite yet.

“It wasn’t funny,” she grit out between clenched teeth. She crossed her arms and stared forward, though she could see Ben next to her perfectly in the reflective metal doors.

He stiffened in response to Rey’s tone and blinked, hardening his own expression once again. “It was as funny as those ridiculous rats were.”

After an eternity, the elevator doors opened to the parking garage and Rey practically ran towards her car, not quite sure if she wanted to get away from Ben because she was mad at him, or embarrassed for herself. Maybe a little of both.

Either way, she couldn’t get away quick enough.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta'd! Sorry for any mistakes; it was just getting late for a Halloween chapter so I wanted to get this one out there! Plan to have the Thanksgiving chapter up around the end of the week!


End file.
